Commonly, rotatable members are supported for rotation in difficult to access locations on and in a variety of machines, and are subjected to rigorous loading conditions that can adversely affect and shorten the life of bearings and shafts supporting the rotatable members. For instance, feeder assemblies of agricultural combines which transfer and convey all of the harvested crop and other material from the header to a threshing section of the combine, include rotatably driven sprocket assemblies, drums, rollers, and the like, for propelling moving chains that convey the crop material through an interior space of the feeder into the thresher. Feeders can also include optional rotating beaters for separating hard items such as rocks that could potentially damage components of the combine, from the crop material being fed into the thresher. Typically, it is desirable to maintain the ends of the rotating sprocket assemblies, drums, and beaters, in close proximity to the interior surface or side sheet of a feeder house or housing of the feeder, to prevent long crop material, such as stalks, vines, and the like, from wrapping around shafts and bearings supporting the ends of the sprocket assemblies, drums, beaters and the like, for avoiding overloading or stalling the drive and other problems. However, affording such close proximity of the rotating members to the interior sides of the enclosures makes it difficult to access bearings and shafts supporting the ends of the rotatable members for installation, service, maintenance and replacement. This can be a problem as combine down time for partial disassembly of a feeder housing or enclosure for replacing a shaft and/or a bearing can be costly both timewise and financially, and there is the risk of improper reassembly as a consequence of difficult access. Another potential problem is fatigue failure of shafts as a result of side loading conditions.
Thus, what is sought is a bearing and shaft assembly for supporting an end of a rotatable member, which is completely installable and removable and replaceable from an opposite side of a member supporting the bearing and shaft assembly, and, which is resistant to fatigue failure.